US troops kill three Afghans 'in friendly fire incident'

US troops guarding the American embassy in Kabul shot dead three Afghan soldiers today after mistaking them for assailants, the chief of police in the capital said.

Gunfire rang out as the Afghan soldiers were unloading weapons from a truck, said Police Chief Basir Salangi.

“It was a misunderstanding between the American guards at the US embassy and our soldiers who were unloading weapons,” he said.

There were no apparent US casualties, he said. US and Afghan forces sealed off the area after the shooting. Two other Afghan soldiers were wounded in the exchange, Salangi said.

He said the soldiers were delivering the weapons to an intelligence agency barracks across the road from the embassy.

“They wanted to unload the weapons to store them inside the brigade, which belongs to the intelligence service,” he said.

Maj Sarah Wood, a British spokeswoman for the international peacekeepers patrolling the capital, said the shooting was being investigated.